The lie about Jews that the power of the IDF never failed to shed was that we’re incapable of fighting, that we manipulate others into doing our fighting for us and that we’re constantly pretending to be victims in order to gain undeserved sympathy from those around us.
As if to prove that point the one time Labour Party political candidate for Witham in Essex in the 2015 general election spent a long time both attacking Jews for killing too many people once they had a state and for not killing enough people before Israel was founded;
It’s unfortunate that this was posted in 2012 and yet still Clarke was able to run as the Labour Party political candidate for his constituency but the way the Labour Party is today I’m not sure that holding such views didn’t actually help him. But his accusation about Jews fighting in World War II hits a particular nerve with me and should with Jews everywhere. From the USA to the former Soviet Union and all around the world Jews fought, shed blood and died in the name of freedom. Their children and grandchildren shouldn’t now, decades later, be forced into proving it. Yet here we are.
Apparently John Clarke has never heard of Major General Maurice Rose who was killed in Germany while leading his division from the front. Rose’s father and grandfather were rabbis but he was always determined to become a soldier. Major General Rose was the highest ranking US officer to be killed by enemy fire in the European theater of operations. He ran his division from the front line and he earned every promotion he got by advancing against the enemy.
I imagine that Clarke has never heard of Raymond Zussman, Isadore Jachman and Ben Salomon three Jewish boys who awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour, the highest decoration for bravery in the US military for their courage fighting in World War II. Jachman was awarded the medal for attacking two German tanks with a bazooka that he retrieved while under fire. Zussman, Jachman and Salomon account for just three of the 26,000 medals and citations awarded to Jews in the US Armed Forces during World War II. Another three Jewish soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross, the UKs highest award for gallantry during the war while serving in the British armed forces.
Over 550,000 American Jews served in the US armed forces during world war II. An estimated 500,000 more Jews wore the uniform of the Red Army (including at least nine generals). One of whom was called Yakov Kreizer. He was awarded Russia’s highest award for bravery and promoted to the rank of Field Marshal in the Russian Army after war. 100,000 wore the uniform of the Polish Army and 30,000 the British, including privates Jack Goldberg and Jack Fisher, my grandfathers. One of whom lost his entire unit, killed by a bomb hitting their ship while it was docked in St Nazaire at the start of the war. From Arnhem to the Battle of Britain to the Deserts of North Africa Jews fought, killed and died during World War II. Even as far away as India and Burma where my Great Uncle served with the RAF. Many of them returned home only to have to carry on fighting against the same racism Clarke so stubbornly, so contemptibly perpetuates.

American law professor and prominent pro-Israel advocate Alan Dershowitz said that he is opposed to the newly passed outpost bill, but would defend Israel in an international court if necessary over the controversial legislation.
The Knesset late Monday passed the so-called Regulation Law, which enables the appropriation of private Palestinian land for Israeli settlement outposts in the West Bank, in a move the Palestinians condemned as a means to “legalize theft.”
UN envoy for the Middle East peace process Nickolay Mladenov called the bill a “very dangerous precedent” and raised the possibility the law could open Israel up to potential prosecution at the International Criminal Court, a risk the Israel’s attorney general has warned of, as has Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite his support of the bill.
“I’m opposed to the statute, I think it is a very bad idea,” Dershowitz said in an interview broadcast Saturday on Israel Radio.
But Dershowitz said the court in the Hague was not the proper venue for such a case.
“The International Criminal Court was set up to deal with genocide, with mass murderers, not to deal with property disputes,” Dershowitz said. “So I think it would be utterly improper for the International Criminal Court to set up an investigation based on a dispute over land.”
Dershowitz acknowledged Israel could still find itself there, due to “bias against Israel in international tribunals.”

In a new video posted to social media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the diversity of Israeli society and the Jewish state’s advancement of equal opportunities for the country’s Arab citizens.
“I hope more states in our troubled region begin to emulate Israel and treat minorities with dignity and respect, the dignity and respect that all human beings deserve,” Netanyahu stated. “Just imagine, imagine if the Middle East looked a bit more like Tel Aviv and a bit less like Aleppo.”

Following McGill University student rep Igor Sadikov advocating violence against Zionists, and his subsequent non-apology, a student at McGill has detailed the goings-on at a SSMU meeting on Thursday night – one that included more disturbing conduct from Sadikov and others – including outright antisemitism.I have never felt so targeted, disgusted, or disappointed in my life. Last night, at a Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council meeting, the same representative who tweeted “punch a Zionist” said, and I quote, that “it is contested that Jews are an ethno-religious group.” In the same train of thought, he stated that there is no evidence that Jews are indigenous to the Levant. Various members of the McGill community snapped and cheered loudly upon hearing this statement. When the rest of SSMU Council (all 37 members) was called upon to condemn this anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, they fell silent.
In the same meeting, I asked how SSMU and the Arts Undergraduate Society of McGill University would protect my safety as someone who identifies as Zionist. Again, I was met with silence, until the representative who initially advocated the punch said that while he regretted the way that he phrased his call for violence, he stood behind the sentiment. He then said that the violence that he was encountering after posting his thoughts on a public social media account was worse than any violence that I, as a Zionist, or my Zionist peers, would encounter or have encountered. Once again, all 37 elected members of SSMU council were completely silent. Their silence spoke volumes about how little they care about Jewish and Zionist students.
SSMU President Ben van der Ger refused to condemn the call to violence that one of his board members posted on social media, even in a crowded room. By not condemning this violence, he was condoning it, and the collective silence of the rest of the SSMU Executive made it explicitly clear that they agreed. Ben put every single McGill student in danger last night by supporting violence against a group. While I have been careful thus far to characterize the initial tweet as incitement of “political” violence, last night’s meeting made evidently clear to me that it was, in fact, advocating violence against Jews.

The United States blocked on Friday to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' choice of former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad as the body's new representative to Libya.
"The United States was disappointed to see a letter indicating the intention to appoint the former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister to lead the UN Mission in Libya," Haley said in her statement.
"For too long the UN has been unfairly biased in favor of the Palestinian Authority to the detriment of our allies in Israel," she said.
Haley added that the United States "does not currently recognize a Palestinian state or support the signal this appointment would send within the United Nation."
The PLO released a statement condemning Haley for the move, calling it "blatant discrimination on the basis of national identity.”
"It defies logic that the appointment of the most qualified candidate is blocked because it is perceived as detrimental to Israel. It constitutes a blanket license for the exclusion of Palestinians everywhere."
The statement also expressed hope that the US would "take back" the decision and instead work to "block petty acts of bigotry and vindictiveness and the further victimization of the Palestinian people for the mere fact of their existence.”

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon on Friday hailed the start of a “new era at the UN” as the United States blocked the appointment of former Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad to be the new world body envoy to Libya.
“This is the beginning of a new era at the UN. The United States stands firmly and unapologetically beside Israel,” Danon said.
Earlier, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said in a statement that she did not “support the signal this appointment would send within the United Nations,” where the Palestinians do not have full membership.
“The new Administration proved once again that it stands firmly alongside the State of Israel in the international arena and in the UN in particular,” Danon said, adding that “the new administration is working towards the joint interest of the United States, Israel and the special alliance between our two nations.

The Palestinians on Saturday condemned as “blatant discrimination” Washington’s decision to block the appointment of their former prime minister Salam Fayyad as UN peace envoy to Libya.
UN chief Antonio Guterres nominated Fayyad to the post on Thursday and the Security Council had been expected to approve his appointment without objections.
But late on Friday, US ambassador Nikki Haley announced she was blocking the appointment because “for too long, the UN has been unfairly biased in favor of the Palestinian Authority to the detriment of our allies in Israel.”
Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi dismissed the “flimsy excuse” for a move she described as “unconscionable.”
“Blocking the appointment of Dr. Salam Fayyad is a case of blatant discrimination on the basis of national identity,” she said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday defended his choice of former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad to be the UN peace envoy to Libya after the United States blocked the appointment.
The decision to put forward his candidacy “was solely based on Mr. Fayyad’s recognized personal qualities and his competence for that position,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
“United Nations staff serve strictly in their personal capacity. They do not represent any government or country,” he said.
Guterres had informed the Security Council earlier this week of his intention to appoint Fayyad and set a deadline of Friday for members to raise objections.

Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and the Arab League have all expressed their disapproval of the Regulation Law. But a closer look at their condemnations shows that the Arab nations have expressed a very tame response to the passing of the controversial law and it has hardly caused a ripple within the Arab world.
Ahmed Abuoul Gheit, the Arab League secretary, described the law as 'theft of Palestinian land', while a Jordanian minister warned of violent reactions and of the end of the two-state solution. Turkey also condemned the law. However none of this filtered down to the main news in these countries. No ambassadors were called in for consultation and there was hardly any media criticism of the law.
The Al-Jazeera site did not run the item on its main page, while the Saudi-funded AsharQ Al-Awsat site merely sited the response of PLO Chief Council member Yasser Abed Rabo who said that Palestinians are losing their lands and are afraid to go to international legal forums out of concern for the US and Israeli reactions.
The reason for this, according to Islamic expert Dr. Efraim Harara, is because the Sunni Muslim countries are in a desperate fight with their Shiite counterparts led by Iran and its proxies, Assad and Hezbullah and therefore maintain an unwritten treaty with Israel. Egypt is helped by Israeli intelligence and even receives military aid in its battle against ISIS insurgents in Sinai. Jordan is also receiving Israeli aid in its battle against ISIS and other Islamic organizations according to a recent Reuters report, while Saudia is cautiously taking steps towards economic cooperation with Israel.

Colonel Yosef (Joe) Alon was murdered 44 years ago, and the investigation was closed when it reached a dead end.
Now the FBI has reopened the case, as first revealed by American journalist Adam Goldman.
One of the triggers for opening the file was Vladimir Ilich Ramirez, better known as “Carlos the Jackal,” who is serving a life sentence in a French prison.
Colonel Alon was Israel’s Air Force attaché in the US. He was among the founders and pioneers of the Air Force, with dozens of combat sorties to his credit in Israel’s wars of 1956 and 1967 against its Arab neighbors.
On July 1, 1973, he was driving with his wife, Deborah, returning from a diplomatic reception. After entering their driveway in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, Deborah got out of the car, and as she reached the front door she heard shots.

It must be so convenient, while marching in the safe confines of Washington DC, to advocate that other women -- far away -- be genitally mutilated, married off in childhood, and beaten and violated in their own homes. These women in hijabs marching on Washington do not have to live in this "Utopia." They are comfortably living in the "infidel West," protected from such barbarity.
The Western culture that allows women to shout into microphones is not even necessarily the culture these women believe in; it is often just a tool they use to promote totalitarian ideas such as anti-Semitism, religious intolerance and imposition of theocratic beliefs.
Does Linda Sarsour really think that people have gone so mad that they will give up the civil liberties that their ancestors earned through the centuries, merely for interest-free loans?
The hypocrisy is that Sarsour's bold lifestyle in the US portrays that deep down she herself loathes the suppressing conditions that she promotes for the poor women of the Muslim world, who actually have to live with them. Coming from a conservative Muslim society, I know the culture she yearns for would never allow her to launch such activism without permission from her "guardian" men.
The dissenting voices of the oppressed are fighting on two fronts. They are being crushed by their own totalitarian regimes and at the same time by Western apologists for these tyrants.

Female suicide bombers were relatively unknown till the second intifada that began in September 2000.
Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a senior lecturer in the department of Arabic at Bar-Ilan University, said Sunday that he had been surprised to discover that the perpetrator of an explosion in the bus in which he was traveling was a woman.
Fortunately, he suffered only slight injuries and was able to take care of them himself. This was the first time that a woman had been involved in a suicide attack, he said. Casting his mind back after the incident, he remembered having seen her wearing a blue velvet dress – a garment worn only at weddings. “She was dressed for a wedding with shaheeds [‘martyrs”] in heaven.”
Kedar, an officer in IDF Military Intelligence for 25 years, was speaking at the Begin Heritage Center at the launch of the Gefen Publishing House book Women and Jihad by Rachel Avraham, a news editor and political analyst for Jerusalem Online, the English language Internet edition of the televised Channel 2 News.
“Women are not supposed to blow themselves up,” Kedar said. They are supposed to stay at home and give birth – “preferably to boys” – and care for their families. Blowing themselves up goes against the grain of Islamic society – at least it used to.

And a maximum of 10% of Muslims support the religious struggle to obliterate all other religions and install an Islamic caliphate throughout the entire planet. So how did we arrive at the point where people all around the world are impacted so greatly and live in such fear? The surprising answer to this question lies in the West, where people support democratic and pluralistic regimes. In universal justice and laws, in freedom and human rights. Islamic terrorists don’t care about any of these ideals, and when Western leaders display weakness, are fearful of using military might, and obey strict international laws regarding military actions and punishing terrorists, this only serves to encourage terrorist organizations.
They are only concerned about their own survival, and not about the future of the world. In this fashion, ISIS has operated unhindered for years now. Boko Haram has murdered tens of thousands of people in Africa without anyone batting an eye. And this is how Hamas has remained in power all these years despite its reign of terror. And thus the Western world sits powerless in the face of these terrorist organizations.
This situation is not irreversible, but it does require a change in mindset and an internalization of the reality, especially among EU countries. There needs to be cooperation by world leaders if we are to take back control from this relatively small number of terrorists who are wreaking havoc on civilians the world over.
Making a successful change would involve imposing emergency regulations in Western countries, and carrying out legislative changes that would enable security and intelligence forces to do their jobs properly. Western militaries must engage in action without fearing legal restrictions. Intelligence gathering agencies must share intel and carry out preventive actions that would neutralize terrorist cells. All of this activity must be backed by international law enforcement agencies, and we must understand that we will not survive unless we follow the proverb “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Since we live in a jungle, we must begin behaving like the savage tribes that live there. Otherwise, we will soon find ourselves turning into fodder for these murderous tribes.
It’s clear that Islam as a religion is not the problem, but only terrorists and leaders who are acting in the name of Islam. This threat has not taken over the world yet, but if we ignore what’s happening in front of our eyes and let more and more countries around the world crumple under radical Islam’s influence, the situation will continue to worsen significantly. We can’t let that happen.

It behooves the different sectors of the Jewish world to unite against the common threats they face, Malcolm Hoenlein told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
The executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is in Israel ahead of the organization’s annual leadership mission, set to begin later this month.
“We have to focus on the issues we have in common, on the things we care about, and recognize that there are differences but we can deal with them with respect,” he said. “What unites us far outweighs what divides us and the threats we face require a unified response from the community. We need to have the people together.”
In an interview that covered antisemitism in the diaspora as well as regional threats faced by Israel and the US, Hoenlein said: “The security of future generations interests all Jews and rests on our being able to be united and work together, and trying to be more sensitive to one another so we can find those common areas.
“Klal Yisrael [the Jewish people] is a vital security issue. The leadership has to send the message that it’s the responsibility of all of us, whether it’s in communities, in schools, in other places, to stop just focusing on what divides us but to focus on what unites us and to talk about the issues honestly and openly,” he said, stressing that when differences are exaggerated, people are pitted against one another.
“Those who seek to divide have to be held to account,” he added passionately, saying that the achievement of unity is the responsibility of government leaders, religious leaders, community leaders, opinion molders and the media.
Hoenlein’s approach toward US-Israel relations is similar. “I think the US and Israel have so many common interests – overwhelming common interests – that I hope will be addressed in their discussions now,” he said in reference to the first meeting between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled for Wednesday.

The self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks wrote to former president Barack Obama to tell him 9/11 was a direct result of American foreign policy and the deaths of innocent people it caused, including among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s 18-page letter was addressed to “the head of the snake, Barack Obama,” leader of “the country of oppression and tyranny.”
“Your hands are still wet with the blood of our brothers and sisters and children who were killed in Gaza,” he wrote in the opening paragraph.
Mohammed’s defense attorney, David Nevin, provided a copy of the letter, which has not yet been posted on the US military’s website for Guantanamo proceedings. He told AFP that Mohammed began writing it in 2014.
The letter is dated January 8, 2015, but reached the White House only two years later in the last days of Obama’s presidency, according to news reports, after a military judge ordered the Guantanamo prison camp where Mohammed is held to deliver it.
“It was not we who started the war against you in 9/11; it was you and your dictators in our land,” he wrote.

A Danish prosecutor said a 16-year-old girl has been formally charged with planning bomb attacks against two schools in Denmark.
Prosecutor Lise-Lotte Nilas says the teenager is accused of “having made preparations to make bombs” using the explosive known as TATP. She said her targets were a school west of Copenhagen and a Jewish school in the capital.
Police thwarted the plans by arresting the girl on Jan. 13, 2016. A trial is set to start April 7, 2017 in Holbaek, northwest of the Danish capital.
Charges against a 25-year-old man, initially believed to an accomplice, have been dropped.
Defense lawyer Michael Juul Eriksen told The Associated Press his client, who twice had been in Syria, would be released later Friday.

US President Donald Trump is expected to personally brief Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas following next week’s scheduled meeting between the American leader and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, an East Jerusalem-based Palestinian newspaper reported Saturday.
According to Al-Quds, Palestinian sources also confirmed that Palestinian intelligence chief Majed Faraj held talks with US security officials in Washington over the past two days, the first such contacts between the Palestinians and the Trump administration. The paper said that Faraj had received “encouraging messages” from the US officials, who said Trump was seriously considering not moving the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, counter to his previous indications that he intended to do so.
Faraj returned to Ramallah on Friday and relayed the content of his meetings to Abbas.
There was no confirmation of the report from other sources.

An organization representing French Israelis on Friday criticized far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen for saying she would seek to bar French citizens from holding a dual citizenship with non-European countries such as Israel.
Ariel Kandel, director of Qualita — an umbrella organization representing French immigrants to Israel — said “These propositions are unacceptable to the Jews of France.
“They mark an additional stage in Marine Le Pen’s wish to destroy the identity of French Jews which rest both on their Judaism and on their ties to Israel,” he said.
“The prospect that Jews will no longer be able to enjoy their Jewish and Zionist identity is quite troubling,” Kandel said.
Le Pen, head of the Front National party and a leading candidate in the upcoming French presidential elections this spring, told France 2 TV Thursday that “Israel is not a European country and doesn’t consider itself as such” when asked if her ban on dual nationality would be extended to Jewish citizens of France.

A Palestinian woman was arrested Saturday after she pulled out a knife and headed toward a Border Police force in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron.
The troops identified her intentions, drew their weapons and called on the woman to halt. The suspect came to a sudden stop without any shots fired, and threw the knife to the floor.
No injuries were reported in the incident, which took place at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site considered holy to both Jews and Muslims.
The woman, who is reportedly a resident of Hebron, was taken for questioning by security forces.
On Friday, Israeli security forces raided the West Bank home of a suspected terrorist, a day after a combination shooting-stabbing attack that left five people injured in the central city of Petah Tikva, the army said. The forces confiscated the work permits of family members of the alleged assailant, identified by Palestinian media as 18-year-old Sadeq Nasser Abu Mazen from Beita al-Foka, a village south of Nablus.

The Gaza border has been heating up recently. In the past week, a rocket was launched at Israel from the Strip, the IDF conducted multiple retaliatory strikes against the territory’s Hamas rulers, at least four rockets were fired at Eilat by the Islamic State in the Sinai Peninsula and an explosion in a smuggling tunnel between Israel and Gaza killed two Palestinian men.
All this occurred amid an ongoing, bloody war between Egyptian military forces and the Islamic State, IS’s tense-but-holding cooperation with Hamas and rumors of potential rapprochement between Hamas and Egypt, and Israel’s precarious détente with Hamas in Gaza.
Of the week’s incidents, the Islamic State’s rocket attack on Eilat is exceptional. While comparatively rare since the 2014 Gaza war, the Strip saw flare-ups last October and August, after fringe salafist groups fired rockets at Israel and the IDF responded with aerial and tank bombardments.
However, attacks against Israel from the Islamic State in Sinai — formerly the group known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis — are far less common, happening perhaps once or twice a year since the group changed its name in 2014.

Egyptian media have played a taped conversation between the Egyptian foreign minister and an Israeli envoy, apparently confirming the close coordination between Cairo and Jerusalem over the controversial planned Egyptian transfer of the Red Sea islands of Sanafir and Tiran to Saudi Arabia.
Israel has previously said it gave written approval for the move because the two Red Sea islands figure prominently in the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement signed in 1979.
But the move is deeply unpopular in Egypt, where it is seen as selling off parts of Egypt in exchange for Saudi cash. Egypt’s High Administrative Court last month upheld a ruling voiding the government agreement to hand over the two islands.
The taped conversation was played on Egyptian opposition TV channel Mekameleen on Friday, according to the Middle East Eye.
The recording only has the side of Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in his conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal envoy, Yitzhak Molcho. However, Molcho is referred to by name several times in the recording.

The Apache attack helicopter has become a symbol of Egypt’s war on terror in Sinai. Local politicians speak glowingly of the American-made war machine. In 2014 the US delivered ten of the helicopters to Cairo and since then they have a played a key role in fighting extremists in Sinai and securing the country.
On Wednesday night three rockets fired from Sinai were intercepted by Iron Dome near the coastal city of Eilat. A fourth fell in an open area. According to reports an ISIS-affiliate in Sinai took responsibility for the attacks. This once again sheds light on the ability of Islamist groups to operate from the peninsula. For Egypt, the destruction of these groups, who often target Egyptian security forces, has been a priority for years.
Terror targeting tourists occurred in Taba in 2004 and Sharm el Sheikh in 2005. Increasing attacks by extremists in Sinai began in 2011 following the Arab Spring protests in January of that year. By 2012 it had expanded to dozens of attacks on Egyptian security personnel and was one of the factors motivating the Egyptian military to step in during mass protests in 2013 and oust the Muslim Brotherhood from power. Attacks in Sinai and the murder of Egyptians led the military to conclude that the government was feeding extremism and instability. Since then the defeat of groups such as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis and later Wilayet Sinai, which is affiliated with Islamic State, has been a priority for the government. Their role in Sinai is concentrated on recruiting local beduin who have been radicalized. They also play a role in the arms trade with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and they have targeted strategic targets such as pipelines and ships, as well as targeting Israel.
For Egypt tourism is a key element of the economy. The downing of a Russian passenger airliner Metrojet 9268, killing 213, by a suspected bombing led to a mass exodus of almost 20,000 tourists in October 2015. Sharm el-Sheikh became a “ghost town,” according to the Daily Mail. In October of 2016 Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi extended a state of emergency in north Sinai.

In South Lebanon on Friday, February 3, 2017, local residents clashed, in two separate but simultaneous incidents, with UNIFIL patrol units, one of them Slovenian and the other Italian, stationed there as part of UN Security Council Resolution 1701; as a result, both units withdrew from the area. These two incidents followed a relatively long period of calm between the sides, leading to speculation regarding the instigators' motives and aims.
On February 5, 2017, in reaction to the clashes, 'Ali Al-Amin, an anti-Hizbullah Shi'ite Lebanese journalist and editor of the website Janoubia, attributed the events to the recent increase in Iran-U.S. tensions, arguing that Hizbullah was directing the local residents according to orders from Iran as a way of conveying a message to the U.S. and the West. He noted that UNIFIL, Lebanon, and Israel are now bargaining chips and hostages in Iran's fight against the U.S.

One of the worst fictions created by Barack Obama and Ben Rhodes, his deputy national security advisor for strategic communication, was that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) “shrink-wrapped” Iran’s nuclear program.
In reality, not only did the JCPOA fall far short of counter-proliferation precedent in the Libya and South Africa, but it also failed in formally getting Iran to ratify and put in force the Agreed Framework to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Rather than establish the world’s toughest restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry acquiesced to, at best, the 130th most restrictive inspections and verification regimen.
The debate about whether or not Iran’s ballistic missile tests violate the JCPOA and United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 highlights just how full of loopholes Kerry’s signature deal was. One loophole is that it does not prevent Iran from experimenting with ever-more advanced and efficient nuclear centrifuges, never mind that it was Iran’s covert enrichment that caused first the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Board of Governors and then the United Nations Security Council to take up the Islamic Republic’s nuclear file in the first place.
Now, word comes that Iran is experimenting with IR-8 centrifuges. Perhaps Iran cannot yet run these (legally) on an industrial scale, but they can work out all the kinks in order to be able to do so the minute the restrictions written into the JCPOA begin to expire. This means, in effect, the nightmare described by JCPOA critics—and dismissed by Kerry and Rhodes and the network of groups all sharing similar funding: Iran would have access to an industrial-scale nuclear program, fully-funded, with few restrictions and the most advanced centrifuges as soon as the sunset clauses within the JCPOA came into effect.

The Turkish website Avlaremoz, which reports on Jewish-related issues, recently covered the story of a Jewish school that used to be based in Istanbul.
The Haskoy Alliance Girls’ School, which opened in 1874 and began to welcome boys in 1877, still carries the French inscription “Alliance Israélite Ecole des Garçons” (Jewish Alliance Boys’ School). Today, however, it serves as the student guesthouse of Kadir Has University. It was established under the Alliance Israélite Universelle, the first modern international Jewish organization.
According to the website of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), the organization was founded to “help their fellow Jews, wherever they were suffering for or discriminated against because of their religion.” Its important network of schools aimed “to improve the position of the Jews in the Turkish Empire by instruction and education.”

On Friday, a court in Hamburg, Germany upheld its decision to convict Jan Böhmermann, a German comedian, for making several jokes about Turkish President dictator Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The court determined that the comedian's comments were unacceptable, saying that "artistic freedom is unconditional but not unbounded" while hypocritically stating that heads of state should accept "heavy criticism."
Last March, Böhmermann recited a poem that referred to the dictator by a multitude of derogatory and insulting names, including but not limited to: "pervert" and "goat-f**ker." The satirical poem resulted in a diplomatic controversy between Berlin and Ankara, where the Turkish government demanded that the German courts prosecute Böhmermann for having the audacity to insult their dictatorial leader.
Germany's decision to prosecute Böhmermann caused condemnation from non-governmental organizations like Human Rights Watch and German journalists who believe free speech should be protected. Germany also faced criticism for silencing individuals who rejected Germany's decision to bring more migrants and refugees to their border, working with Facebook, Twitter, and Google to censor "offensive content" following the gang rapes by refugees in Cologne in New Year's Eve in 2015.

ISIS spokesman Abdullah da-Mullah has announced the cessation of military operations against the infidels (i.e. the world), in order to focus on a more deadly threat to the Islamic Caliphate.
“We have directed our forces to halt their advance in both Iraq and Syria immediately. All offensive units have been given new orders as of this morning,” said da-Mullah. “The Islamic State is committing all its resources to the defeat of climate change.”
Mr. da-Mullah then drew his scimitar and waved it menacingly toward the sky while screaming, “We will plant trees and shrubbery all the way to the gates of hell! We give our lives for our fragile eco-systems!”
Prince Charles of Great Britain, long a champion of faux-threats to global stasis, hailed the development as “peace in our time!” before resuming his endless wiping of spittle from his chin.
Former American Vice-President turned climate alarmist/huckster/profiteer Al Gore was reached for comment while refueling his fleet of Boeing 747 personal aircraft. The graying politician immediately took credit for ISIS’ change of heart. “This, the Internet. You name it, I did it.”

DO know your audience and predict what might appeal to them
DON’T Expect an anti-Muslim or anti-Palestinian hatefest to woo those on the fence. It will do the opposite.
DO Discuss Israel being the victim of Islamic terror with the same ideology as that which is affecting Europe.
DON’T refer to leftists as “dhimmis” in non-Zionist spaces. You don’t win people over by insulting them.
DO point out the blatant double standards the world holds Israel.
DON’T collectively refer to Palestinians or Muslims as terrorists or say “Palestine never existed”.
DO use an argument that will cause people to come to the conclusion on their own than the Palestinian identity was socially constructed in the 1960’s to undermine the Jews’ indigenous claim.
DON’T feel that just because it was socially constructed, that it means you can use offensive words like “fakestinians” that distract from your argument and make you look like an insensitive tool. Realize that even though it was constructed recently to undermine us, it still exists and is real

A United Nations report on establishing a database of companies with business interests in Israeli settlements in the West Bank is set to be delayed until later this year, diplomats and activists said on Friday.
The UN human rights office had been due to present its first report on the politically charged issue at a session that opens on Feb. 27, which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also due to address.
But the report is not ready and will be deferred for many months, at least until September, the sources said, adding that an announcement was expected on Monday.
"There is a need for more time, it is a very complex issue," a Western diplomat told Reuters. "You need to have a clear vision of how you list the companies, what is the exact criteria."

A female visitor (not a student) to Central Michigan University passed out a Hitler-themed Valentine’s Day card at a College Republicans event.
“The grossly offensive action of one individual, a nonstudent, has deeply distressed our campus community and others across the nation,” said George E. Ross, president of the university. “With heavy hearts and great embarrassment, we apologize. To those of Jewish descent, rest assured that we stand with you and vow to continue the effort to educate others.”
Outlets and people across the Internet blamed the College Republicans for the incident. The Daily Mail published an article implicating the group and users took to Twitter decrying what they perceived to be the fault of the College Republicans.
“Unfortunately, a very inappropriate card was placed into a bag without other members’ knowledge,” said the College Republicans on Facebook.
“We in no way condone this type of rhetoric or anti-Semitism,” said the group. “We apologize for any offense, and want students to know that we do not tolerate this sort of behavior.”

After being pressured by the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a prominent American football player has nixed his participation in an upcoming group trip to the Jewish state.
Michael Bennett — a 31-year-old Pro Bowl defensive lineman for the Seattle Seahawks — was supposed to join 10 other National Football League players next week on an Israeli government-sponsored seven-day tour of the Holy Land.
On Thursday, however, Bennett tweeted, “Im not going to Israel.”
Bennett’s tweet followed the publication of an open letter signed by a number of anti-Israel groups and activists calling on the members of the NFL delegation to not go to Israel “to ensure you are standing on the right side of history.”

Late last month, on the eve of Black History Month, a delegation of African-American journalists landed in Ghana to cover international development projects and the impact those projects are making in that West African country.
This in itself is nothing out of the ordinary. Africa in general and Ghana in particular have long held special importance for the African-American community. Leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali have all made pilgrimages to Accra, Ghana’s capital, and returned describing the experience as a formative one.
Yet there was something truly unprecedented about this delegation: It was organized and led by the Government of Israel, and its focus was on Israeli-Ghanaian development work in the fields of education, health and agriculture. I will long cherish and be grateful for the honor and privilege of accompanying that delegation.
At the insistence of the Israeli ambassador to Accra, Ami Mehl, the program began with a visit to the slave dungeons of Cape Coast Castle. The walk through the dark, narrow, suffocating chambers where hundreds of thousands of people were held, stripped naked, gasping for air and wading up to their knees in human waste, brought to mind the Holocaust, with which we as a people are tragically familiar.

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From MEMRI : Jordanian businessman Talal Abu Ghazaleh said that there was an “easy solution” to the Palestinian problem: “Let every Pal...

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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون

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